is this about ME?
By Harley

My mom was dead six years before I created a mother for Wollie, my series’ protagonist. I wanted to give my own Mom plenty of time to get settled in on the next plane of existence, reach a higher vibration, or even reincarnate, in order to spare her social embarrassment. You know, in case anyone in the Afterlife is reading chick lit.

Not that Wollie’s mother was based on my mom. I mean, not exactly. But I was wary. Years ago I had a pair of essays in the SANTA MONICA REVIEW, a literary biannual. I took a copy home for Christmas. My sister Ann read it and said, “This is great. Don’t show it to Mom.”

“How come?” I asked.

“Because you describe her as a card-carrying New Ager with high blood pressure who writes letters to her guardian angel.”

Oh, that. Please. A couple of sentences in a 36-page piece. Would that really upset her? Yes. Along with many sterling qualities, Mom also had the “what will people think?” gene. I opted not to show her the SANTA MONICA REVIEW, and I never regretted it.

Shortly thereafter, I switched to fiction. Fiction, with its tacit “any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental . . .” disclaimer, would take care of that dilemma.

You’d think.

Recently my author’s copies of THIS IS CHICK LIT showed up on the doorstep. THIS IS CHICK LIT is an anthology featuring a short story I wrote called “The Infidelity Diet.” My husband, who never gets to see my work-in-progress, grabbed it, started reading, and put it down after a page. “Is this about ME?” he asked.

“No, it’s fiction,” I said. “If it’s about anyone, it’s about me.”

“It looks like it’s about me.” he said.

“No, I just borrowed a few things. Your shirt size. Your food allergy. Couple of great lines you’ve said over the years. Your car.”

“People are going to think it’s about me.”

Impossible. The guy in the story has a different name, career, hair color, and bedroom carpet. His dogs are named Spot and Plain instead of Jinn and Fez. If anyone has cause for complaint about “The Infidelity Diet,” it’s my grandmother, Larry Flynt, and Richard the Third, but they’re not grousing.
Besides, it’s not like the litigation department at my husband’s law firm is fighting over copies of THIS IS CHICK LIT, any more than my mom’s cronies in Duluth were reading and discussing the SANTA MONICA REVIEW back in 1993.

But that’s not really the point. The point is that writers do this. Don’t we? Does anyone out there not do this? Borrow (okay, steal) from people we know because the people we know are more interesting than any we could invent from scratch? It’s not cloning, it’s just a couple of chromosomes, and maybe an old Eraserhead T-shirt. If I’m writing about a man that my character’s in love with, how could he not resemble my husband?

I think it comes with the territory. You marry an obstetrician, she’s going to be getting calls in the middle of the night. Marry a musician, and he’ll nod and appear to be listening to you while actually going over chord progressions in his head. Marry a writer, she’ll steal your brand of deodorant and your mother’s maiden name.

For the record, half the readers of “The Infidelity Diet” think the husband’s cheating on the wife and half do not. I have not taken to watching pornographic movies. And no one has yet reported significant weight loss as a result of reading the story.

And now, I’m off to write a letter to my guardian angel.

Happy Monday!
Harley

Comments

[kat32]

You know what makes this blog so special to me? It is always full emotions and full of inspiration. Keep on writing Harley, one way to keep as inspired all through the day.

[Annette Dashofy]

Yes, yes, yes! I do "borrow" from people I know, but generally, it's people from my past so everyone in my life right now is safe. I love killing off characters based on people who (note to self: keep this PG rated) mistreated me majorly at some point. Writer's revenge. Heh heh heh.

[Rebecca the Bookseller]

Harley - you are not alone. Most authors, if they're honest, will admit to basing characters on people they know - or as Annette points out - people who deserve it.

I'll bet it can be great therapy.

What a great title for your piece - The Infidelity Diet. Nothing personal, but perhaps that's one more explanation for the skeletal look so popular with some famous personalities.

[Harley]

Rebecca, it IS great therapy. Because of course the person I write about most frequently is . . . me! Me! Me! Which is a lot like sitting down for 55 minutes with a sympathetic stranger and yakking about . . . me.

[William Simon]

Mediocre writers borrow; great writers steal. - T. S. Eliot

[Lauren Baratz-Logsted]

I occasionally recycle anecdotes from my formery wild-and-crazy brother - not as scenes but rather as anecdotes one character tells another - and he knows, doesn't mind. On the other hand, my mother, despite that I've told her The Awful Mother is a trope of modern comedic fiction, sees herself in all my awful mothers, not helped by my giving her "TV Guide Wall" to the mother in A Little Change of Face. Thankfully, thus far my husband does not seem concerned about the book where the wife ultimately plots to mudrer her spouse.

Oh, and Harley's "The Infidelity Diet" in THIS IS CHICK-LIT totally rocks.

[Harley]

I don't think my husband would mind being cast as a murderer. But a cheating spouse? His mother would not like that at all. Not that I'm sending these stories to her.

[Josh]

My wife refuses to read anything my sister writes after her book of short stories in 1988 made her look bad and really ripped me. Our neighbor at the time returned it after borrowing it (yes, Elaine, I know), and said "she has a problem with her mother, doesn't she?"). Plus, there's the Satan character in the novel, who does something watching TV at a K-mart that I have been told is based on my childhood. And then there's the mother-hating and father-worship. And the made-up scenes in the memoirs.

I could go on, but do I need to?

On the other hand, I did not mind Sarah's using part of my name for a character. Garbage collector, murderer, victim, call me anything, just don't call me late for dinner.

I have heard that Truman Capote once published something that made friends and acquaintances look bad. When he was called to task, he said something like, "I am a writer, why do you think I was hanging around you?" Someone probably has the exact quote.

[Harley]

I want to hear more about Satan watching TV at K-Mart.

[JDRhoades]

I've only based one character directly on a real person, and that's because he asked me to, I needed a character, and his personality fit what I was looking for. (It's in the next book).

Everybody keeps asking me if any of my small-time redneck criminals are based on former clients. I just smile and say "not directly". But DeWayne, the catalyst in Devils' Right Hand, is practically an archetype of the kind of "repeat customer" I see in District Court all the time.

[Harley]

If I had more children, I'd name them all DeWayne.

[Josh]

Maybe the next time you get stuck in Philadelphia, I'll lend it to you. As long as it isn't after my bedtime, like last time.

And you could be like George Forman, with all his Georges and Georginas (or Georgettes).

[JDRhoades]

Even the girls?

[Harley]

JD, with a name like Harley you surely don't think I'd back off from naming a little girl DeWayne, do you?

I do happen to know what's up with all the George Forman Juniors, but probably everyone else does too, so I won't go into it here.

[ramona]

Hey, Josh, I'm being the book geek here, but that Truman Capote book you referenced is his last, unfinished novel "Answered Prayers." And he didn't just make his friends look bad, he trashed them so badly, the Times reviewer (Tina Brown, I think) said he'd "turned ingratitude into an art form." That's not the quote you meant, but I think it's a pretty good one.

It's a great book, by the way. That boy Truman really put the dis in dissing.

Oh, I think DeWayne and Harley are great names for twins....

[Cinema Dave]

Gee Harley, you are having more twins???

[Cinema Dave]

J.K. Rowling once stated that her character, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, was based on somebody she knew or knows. Apparently the real Professor Gilderoy Lockhart does not recognize himself as such an egocentric character.

It is funny, I found some stuff that I have written many, many years ago. Like Annette, I wrote some wish fufillment revenge upon some people who had wronged me. Now year's later, I can't remember the name of the enemy who inspired me to write such horrible things. But I am glad I kept those old notes!

[nancy martin]

Okay, I'm back from California where I eavesdropped like mad. Last night at a gas station near Eureka, I overheard a wonderful conversation between two guys who were complaining that they were being forced to pay their child support because....and what writer could stop herself from using this??.....their fishing licenses were confiscated until they paid up. Now, really, who among us *isn't* going to use that bit of dialogue someday??

Great blog, Harley. It's so nice to have you not on deadline!

[Harley]

Nancy, about 2 years from now there will be a whole bunch of books with deadbeat dads getting fishing licenses confiscated. All set in California.

[ramona]

And named Harley and DeWayne?

[Densie]

I think that we all tend to use the people in our lives for inspiration. I like to mix a few people into one person in my stories. We all find some intresting people every now and then so why not use it. I love to observe crowds and find intresting people. I will say I have found some of the most intresting in California too.

I guess taking away a mans fishing license will really make them think about what they have done.

[Stacie Penney]

Harley--

I loved your story in THIS IS CHICK LIT. I reviewed the book on my site too --
http://raspberry-latte.blogspot.com/2006/09/this-is-chick-lit-edited-by-lauren.html

The whole thing was fab to read, especially since I had an early release copy. It was like having the last piece of really good chocolate.

[Future Teacher Jessica]

I borrow traits from my friends all the time, in my writings. I love my friends just as much (okay a little bit less) as the characters in the stories I write. It's just a thing writers do I suppose. Who wants to create an event from scratch when you can just use the time your boyfriend got bit by a squirrel while he was attempting to set up a tent? ((Believe me, if you were there. You would have laughed. Alot))

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